Trattoria Alberto

If you are gonna charge $ 20 for chicken parmegian, put a little bit of effort into it. You can find plenty of good receipts on-​line if you chef doesn’t give a damn anymore. I should not need to add LOTS of salt and Parmesan to make it at least taste mediocre. And how hard is it to get pasta aldente? This is an Italian restaurant I think you should master this on day one. Calamari was no better story. Chevy and extremely bland tasting.
Overall incredibly poor experience, from food to management… The only positive thing was a bartender who was very polite while serving me.

This place was OK until I found a piece of gum in my food. The waiter tried to say it was cheese and immediately took the plate away. The management offered no help. Will not return.

This evening was my first visit. It definitely, won’t be my last! I started off with the best calamari, that I ever had. Then, for the entrée, I had a seafood dish, which was the daily special. It was so delicious. I was too stuffed, for desert. My mom’s house, is around the corner. I can’t believe, that I never eaten here, before tonight! The wait staff is first class, all the way.

Lovely atmosphere, nice server, and good food, but it was awkward at the end of the night we were upstairs and it felt like we were being rushed out. They also just added the crème brûlée to their dessert menu which wasn’t as good as I hoped.

This location has some really great offerings. Great ambiance on the lower level with the brick walls and the pictures of Roma on the wall. The food that we had were some great Italian staples: tortellini Della panna, cannelloni with meat sauce, and carbonara. All were very good and the panna was very light. Didn’t weigh us down after eating which is a usual symptom of Italian food. Prices were average and I felt like I got my money’s worth. Would solidly recommend.

We ordered take out after a long day of sightseeing. A huge disappointment. Stale bread. My husband ordered pasta with olive oil and garlic and shrimp. Pasta basically dry. I ordered the Cannoloni. Watery sauce with bland taste. I ordered the tiramasu. It sat for no more than 20 minutes while I ate my dinner. I opened the carton anticipating my favorite dessert and it was pure mush. I have no idea how long it had sat out at the restaurant. Totally inedible. I threw it out. Being a dessert lover that was hard to do but I was worried it would make me ill. I DO NOT recommmend this restaurant. If we had eaten in I would of gotten my money back.

Excellent food, French Martini awesome and Lenin was a great, attentive waiter for our party of 10.

One of the best Italian restaurants in the DC area. A small gem to be discovered in the Eastern Market district of the city. The best calamari outside of Italy.
Will be back soon.

The Italian food here is to die for! Its a nice, cozy place with amazing food. The prices are reasonable, and its located on a great street — Barracks Row — with tons of restaurants and bars all around. I’ve eaten here several time, and plan to go many more. I brought my mom and aunt here when they came to visit, and both of them said it was the best place they ate all week. Seriously good Italian food!

Delicious rockfish, ask grilled, and the Tiramisu + Mascarpone limoncello cake are among the best dessert I had in DC.

The restaurant is large with a few levels of dining rooms and a cozy atmosphere. They have a small outdoor seating in front. The staff was nice but very unhelpful. We asked for wine recommendations and they had no idea. So we Googgled the list and they were all the cheap wines with below average reviews. The food took 1hr to come out and while we waited we were given white bread with cold butter, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, nothing special. Everything was overcooked. The swordfish was so overcooked it was overly dry, pasta has a decent taste but it was not al dente — there were 3 dishes on the table and we all ate our food because we were starved. Dishes are overpriced for the portions you get.

I never would’ve thought the restaurant I ignored as I walked by it hundreds of times would be the one that got me back into writing regular Unilocal reviews. Trattoria Alberto’s is not much to look at from the outside, and I’ve never heard any foodies talk about it, but now that my husband and I have tried it, we will definitely be going back. Cute homey atmosphere with no wait at 7PM on a Friday night — we walked right in, were seated, and had a waiter who was incredibly attentive the whole time we were there.
I was thrilled to see that they had a French Martini (which I’ve recently learned is amazing) on the cocktail menu, and my husband got the Manhattan. Both were great! We also got glasses of Chianti with our meals which were very large. We got the calamari to start, because we figured this place would do a good job, and they did. It was a very large portion of lightly-​breaded and fried calamari, not too tough, with a nice marinara sauce. We also liked the bread which, while not hot, was actually pretty tasty.
For the main meal, I got the penne arrabbiata and my husband got the Suprema di Pollo Alberto (boneless chicken breast with rosemary and garlic in wine sauce, which also comes with pasta in a simple sauce. The arrabbiata was a really big portion and very spicy, just the way we wanted it. The sauce was great to dip the bread in too! The chicken was flavorful and cooked really well. Perfect with the accompanying pasta. Both dishes were very simple but good. We got the chocolate mousse pie for dessert — it wasn’t anything special, but it was chocolatey and good.
Overall, we were impressed with simple Italian food that’s pretty reasonable for the DC area and very tasty. It’s definitely going to be a regular stop in our restaurant rotation now. I’m pretty disappointed we didn’t try it earlier!

Just left out of here for my first visit and I’m a new fan. The service was good, the food was good, and they actually give you warm garlic bread with the butter and cheese melted on, which is a great thing since most places give you cold butter and hard Italian bread. I had the «Cannelloni dello Chef» and it was great. It was tasty and it was plated well. My co-​worker liked her «Gamberi Bianchi» as well.
We went for lunch, and the crowd was lite so that was good for us, and it allowed our waiter to be on top of things.
No complaints about this place for my first visit. Check it out.

Delicious!!! Great staff. I had the Caesar salad– YUMMY!

I was so craving creamy pasta, so I ordered Carbonara — ugh. It was so bad I actually sent it back. The sauce was thin and had broken and the bacon was literally white uncooked rubbery fat — gross! I replaced it with canolini — which is supposed to be swimming in a lovely cream sauce — not so. It was stuffed with meat but the sauce was just lacking flavor. The bread was like grocery store bread — so disappointing. The staff was very nice and the place itself was very clean.

This place has been remarkably consistent over many years. It isn’t trendy and doesn’t try to be – it is basic Italian-​American food prepared and served competently. It may not be up to the better Italian restaurants found in Northeast cities but, hey, we’re in DC and not Brooklyn or the North End here.
Go for the veal or chicken dishes. I would rate their veal milanese against any other place in the region (you can also get chicken milanese but it is not on the menu for some reason). Portions are large and they also offer a good half-​price wine deal on some nights. Service remains excellent. My only negative comment is that prices have continued to creep up here.
When you’re in the mood for basic, good Italian go here.

Food is good enough but atmosphere can often be loud-​to-​rowdy. Once one of CapHill’s great «date «restaurants, families and office parties are the more typical patrons of past few years. Most of excellent older wait staff has left in favor of younger crew that can be disinterested or simply untrained. Parking very difficult but close to Eastern Market Metro. Veal Milanese excellent and enough to share.

Food here is great. I had the filet and pasta. The filet was very tender and juicy and was not over cooked. They have gluten free pasta (probably not homemade like the regular pasta, but being gluten free, I’m just happy they have it!). For dessert I had the flaming ice cream which was amazing. It’s chocolate and vanilla ice cream with a hard chocolate shell that they set on fire and the shell melts. Our waiter was amazing, very attentive to our large party. The outdoor patio is so cute. Also, you might see high ranking politicians here.

Found the outside this place is nothing special, but the food and service makes up for the plain exterior.
The BF and I missed our Valentin’es day dinner reservation (gasp!!!) and walked in here with another couple in hopes of getting a table. Luckily for us, there wasn’t a wait and we were seated immediately. A waiter came over and told us about the numerous specials they had that evening. The seafood ravioli appealed to me the most, I ordered it with cream sauce and calamari for an appetizer. The boyfriend ordered the NY strip with fettucine.
Both dishes were amazingly good! The ravioli tasted fresh (not like it came from a frozen package) and the cream sauce was amazing. My bf commented that his steak was one of the best that he had in a while.
Glad I finally found a non-​chain Italian restaurant that I enjoy!

I don’t have much to say about this little Italian restaurant.
Waitservice was great.
The complimentary bread and butter were good.
The chicken fettuccine was not so great. It was not thick or creamy. I can make a better dish at home.
For the kind of money spent here, it is not worth a return visit.